President's Message
The Changing Face of HUPS
Yesterday, I had the double pleasure and privilege to sit in front of a bunch of HUPS members and try to teach them the arcane and compelling art of creating Digital Slideshows. The real heroes of this story are Photodex (the creators of ProShow Gold) and the participants in the workshop.
It came to me slowly as John Anderson, myself and the early-arriving participants were getting things set up. . . for the most part there were a bunch of new faces showing up. No longer could I feel like I was knocking around with the same people that I've learned to love over the past 10+ years in HUPS. There were actually strangers out there, and I was feeling embarrassed that I didn't know all of the names or faces. Well, I know the problem there. It's me and my lousy memory for faces and names. I can also blame the fact that during meetings when everybody is out schmoozing and getting to know each other, I'm running around trying to get everything coordinated and trying to figure out what I need to say when the meeting starts.
In fact, I really shouldn't be surprised. Over the past several years, HUPS has grown in many ways, including the number of new members that have signed up to sample our product. After the last meeting, David nicely pointed out that I might have been irritating some of our members by thinking they were visitors. Now, that really is inexcusable and I was equally embarrassed that I was being so insensitive. What I guess I need is a "heads-up display" that automatically pops up the name and special information on anyone that I look at. Now, that would be a really cool thing to have and would help me through a lot of awkward situations. Well, this isn't likely to happen any time soon so I'll just have to fight through my own personal "identity crisis" and try to get to know the faces, names, and stories of our new HUPS members.
But I digress. During the workshop some other things became apparent. The most obvious was how much better we were all becoming when it came to our computer skills. During my first Photoshop workshop 3 years ago, a lot of the time was spent reviewing PC-101. You know what I mean. . . "This is a mouse and this is what you can do with it." At the beginning of this workshop, people were setting up their laptops and it was nice to see that everybody pretty much came fully prepared and capable of looking after themselves. Then when we started loading the software, just about everybody breezed through that with almost no hand-holding or over-the-shoulder prompts. Other than getting some of the late-arrivers started, we had everything ready to go well in advance of the time I had allotted. It was also nice to see people helping each other out during the workshop when they would get stuck figuring out what was going on. In fact, I found that some of the hard-ball questions that I couldn't answer were being fielded expertly by Tom Collier, who showed up with enough know-how to have taught the course. Thanks, Tom!
Yes, it looks like HUPS is maturing when it comes to their PC skills. What a neat thing, especially since digital photography is all over us, like stink on a skunk, and that means that we sink or swim with our PC skills. It's not much good to take a bunch of nice digital images with our new cameras and housings if we are clueless when it comes to processing and managing all of the image files that we're creating.
HUPS is changing. . . or more correctly has changed already. Along with the new technology, we've ended up with a new cast of members. . . members that will be taking us into the future as our new leaders and contributors. I suppose I represent something of a bridge. I have my feet firmly planted in film technology but became infatuated with computers way back with my first Apple IIe. I was one of the first persons in HUPS with a slide scanner and did one of the first all-digital presentations. Now, it's rare when we have presentations that aren't based on digital technology.
I'm seeing a new group of leaders in our club. . . younger members that grew up with a computer on their desk, a mobile phone on their belt, and a digital camera in their shirt pocket. It's also apparent to me and others that it's time to make the final transition and start turning the reins over to this new generation of members. Personally, I'm perfectly happy with this turn of events. What we need now are for the newer members to step up and volunteer to take their turn running things. I see the talent, I see the enthusiasm. Now I'd like to see the commitment. In November, we'll be electing new officers, selecting a new board of directors, and finding new chairpersons for key functions. I'm ready to step back and do other things for the club. If you're ready to step forward and take a turn at helping leading this great club, let us know.
There, I think I'm done for now. Next month's meeting will be coming up Monday, August 1st. I'm looking forward to finding a few free minutes to actually meet and talk with some of our newer members. If I fumble around like I don't know who you are, have pity on me and play like you don't notice.
Dennis
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